Give us a little bit about you and how you started writing Vampire Erotica?
All of my vampire books are based
off of dreams I've had. I'm not sure I
ever intended to write erotica it just happened that those dreams were the ones
that fueled my imagination. Rafe (one of
the characters in my book) has been with me in dreams from my early teenage
years and he's pretty persistent about having his stories told. In these dreams he would take me to other
worlds and we would explore many things together, passion being one of them.
You also have Erotic Novella and a
BDSM book, so how do you choose which genre you will write your next book in?
I would have to say that the book
chooses me. I know this sounds strange
but my dreams have always prompted me to write.
If I dream about a certain situation I have to write about it. Most of them I would never tell the people
I'm closest to about. I don't know how this works for other authors, but my
muse will continue filling my head with dreams until I write them down.
Does the story come first or the
character?
Always the character for me. Being introduced to someone new in my
dreamland is always a shock and I vividly feel those emotions of first meeting
in those dreams. Depending on the
temperament of the character, I can go through a whole gamut of fear, desire,
or pleasure. With the story it's like
being led through a moving picture and experiencing each situation. Thankfully I haven't had nightmares in years,
which is why I don't write horror.
Do you find yourself fighting with
what would you do if you were the character or do you more find yourself if you
were someone else what would you want to do?
I don't know if it's fortunate or
not, but since I live out my stories in dreams first I write exactly what I see
happening in them. In essence, I become
the character until the book is finished no matter what age they are. I never fight against myself internally about
what my characters do, it's hard to fight with yourself.
With all that you are involved in
what is your writing routine like and how often do you write?
With the latest book 10 Nights, it
was absolute insanity. 84,000 words in
14 days and I paid a price for that one.
As many people know I'm a mom of five so any writing that I do has to be
done after my crew here has gone to bed.
For me that means no sleep if I get hit by the muse which was continuous
for two weeks on this project. I managed 3 hours a day and ended up at the doc
with a nice little fever and cold. I
don't have a schedule, when I'm inspired I write.
As you know, Hotlit Books’ goal is
to help authors, so what advice do you offer?
I like to tell my writing friends
that I have no idea what works to push a book, so I try everything. It's insanity some days, but I will try and
push out blog posts for the five blogs I maintain, talk to friends and fans on
twitter and facebook, answer the emails, post on Triberr, update my feed140
tweets, stop in at goodreads, and make sure I share all posts with stumbled
upon and pinterest. I also try and share
my friends work on facebook and twitter daily.
What past or present author would
you like to collaborate on a book and why?
Charlaine Harris is still my
favorite author and I would love to collaborate with her. As another Southern writer I think we have
many of the same little quirks in our writing and while Charlaine keeps her
work pg -13 (shocking if you've watched True Blood) I would love to add a little
more steaminess into her scenes. She
write in a way that always keeps me entertained and I just think it would be
fun to see how a book would turn out if we collaborated. Of course, I would be just as happy to take
over writing the True Blood scripts.
When you write does it have to be
quiet, or do you have music playing, TV on etc…?
It depends on the mood I'm
in. There are nights when a little music
will help get my creative juices flowing and others when it just annoys and
distracts me. The television on would
drive me crazy and I'd probably be ready to throw it through a window if I had
to write with it on. There are enough
people talking in my head when I write, I really don't need anything else going
on around me.
Okay I am going to ask a few hard
ones now. So if you had to choose one of
your books as your best one, which would it be and why?
After all the edits and rewrites,
I would have to say my first Tears of Crimson Book. I'm not so sure it's better than the rest,
but there is more of me invested if that makes sense? My soul went into that book and it took me
two years to complete it. That book
lifted me out of a great depression and changed my outlook on life, so it will
always be my favorite.
In your opinion, do you think that
vampires written today are any different than ones written in the days of Bram
Stoker?
I think today's vampires are
substantially different, and I see no problem with that. I loved Dracula, still do, he was such an
influence on my writing. I love all
vampires, and will read or watch anything with that theme. I have no idea what it is that draws me to
this beautiful creature but I do know that it pulls me in and makes me wish
that they were real.
Today we cannot seem to get away
from someone having a criticism. How do you handle criticism for your work?
My first bad review nearly broke
me. When you spend two years writing out
a story that engulfs your entire life and have someone stomp on it, it's
heartbreaking. I cried for hours and
then I put on my big girl panties and lifted my chin. There are going to be people who hate what
you do, there is no way around it. I
remember going through my favorite authors and reading every bad review they
had and that was what saved my sanity.
In my opinion, if all those wonderful authors I love to read had such
terrible reviews, then I had to look at it from the standpoint that maybe I
didn't suck as bad as the reviewer said.
As my granny use to say, there's an arse for every seat, so I look at it
this way, there are readers for every book.
Do you prefer Twilight, Vampire
Diaries or True Blood style of Vampire?
I prefer them all. My favorite from all those shows is
Eric. He is the yummiest thing since
sliced bread and while I will watch or read anything vampire related, he is my
heartthrob. From the Twilight series, I was actually a Jacob fan.
If given the choice would you let
a vamp turn you?
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Interviewed by: Xavier Zyta
